Andujar fifth Yanks rookie with 25 homers

NEW YORK -- The Yankees tied team history in Wednesday's 10-1 win over the Red Sox, their trio of home runs pushing their season total to 245. That matches the single-season franchise mark, set in 2012.
It is a collective effort that comes with some individual milestones caked in as well, specifically for rookie Miguel Andújar. In drilling the first of New York's three homers on the night, a solo shot off losing pitcher David Price, Andujar put himself in some pretty impressive company with his 25th homer.

Andujar is just the fifth rookie in Yankees history to reach the 25-homer plateau, joining Aaron Judge (2017), Bobby Murcer (1969), Joe Gordon ('38) and Joe DiMaggio ('36). Only Gordon and Andujar did so as infielders, which should only strengthen Andujar's candidacy for the American League Rookie of the Year Award.
With less than two weeks to go in the regular season, Andujar ranks first among AL rookies in hits (158) and RBIs (84), tied for first in homers (25) and hitting (.298), and second in slugging (.516).
Though he's not known for his glove, Andujar also added an over-the-shoulder catch to rob Xander Bogaerts in the sixth.

"What more can you say?" Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "He's been such a great player for us. To see him continue to do it, to see him do it right now when we need it. We've seen him get so many big hits in situations [like] tonight. The homer to get us going and then the offense kind of picked it up from there."
To send his opposite-field homer over the right-field wall in the second, Andujar went up and out of the strike zone to tomahawk a 92.9-mph fastball. It landed a few rows beyond the short right-field porch at Yankee Stadium -- the first of three homers the Yanks would send that way Wednesday. Luke Voit followed with two opposite-field blasts, a solo shot in the fourth and a two-run blast in the sixth. The homers accounted for all the Yankees' runs off Price, who lost for the sixth time in six starts at Yankee Stadium as a member of the Red Sox.

The Yankees then tacked on four runs against Boston's bullpen to stave off elimination in the AL East for another day. The Red Sox arrived in the Bronx this week needing just one win to wrap up the division. Two games in, their champagne remains on ice.
"We have gotten it from a lot of different people," Boone said. "Obviously we've needed that. With Miggy kind of kicking in the door and taking that job early in the season and running with it, the role he's played. And then Voit; if you would've said a couple months ago that he'd be playing this kind of role and hitting for this kind of power with us, I don't think anyone saw it coming."